"No Nucleic Acid, Freedom" The False and Reality of China's Anti-Secretization Protests

The anti-blockade and rights protection protests that started on the grounds of the fire in Urumqi are spreading across China.

As of November 28, protests of various scales broke out in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other places. People took to the streets or gathered on campuses, chanting slogans of various contents.

At the same time, on the Internet port, since November 25, short videos, audio recordings, and graphic messages have flooded in. Although most of the messages were quickly deleted and blocked, people still expressed their support for the current epidemic prevention in various ways. Dissatisfaction with the policy, and distrust of nucleic acid testing institutions that are constantly growing bigger and stronger.

Will the fire in Urumqi become a feng shui ridge?

What will be the result of this round of ever-expanding anti-blockade protests?

Will Chinese officials adjust the strict "dynamic zeroing" policy because of this?

Judging from the causes of this round of protests and the current development trend, there are at least two aspects, real and virtual.

Let's look at the real side first.

From the perspective of the public, the cause of this round of protests seems to be the fire in Urumqi, but in fact the fire in Urumqi is just a "detonator". Today, three years after the epidemic, people of all walks of life are facing a huge sense of uneasiness. Economic pressure and mental pressure are approaching critical points. More and more people are unemployed and cut off their supply. With no hope of returning to normal in sight, the accumulated emotions will explode sooner or later.

No matter who is manipulating this round of protests, these emotions and pressures exist objectively.

People in Shanghai spontaneously mourned the victims of the fire.

(Web image)

From an official point of view, the original intention of maintaining "dynamic clearing" is also for the benefit of the people. Although there are chaos in various places, such as one-size-fits-all, layer-by-layer overweight, and fraudulent nucleic acid testing agencies, etc., this does not negate the government's governance. original intention.

In the three-year time period since the outbreak of the epidemic, it cannot be denied that China has indeed achieved early results in epidemic prevention and has also ensured a low mortality rate.

The key issue now is that the virus is constantly mutating, and people's perceptions are also changing. It is becoming more and more difficult to stick to the old methods. The official wants to be foolproof based on "life first, people first", after calculating the big account and the overall account. The road of gradual liberalization has been adopted, but people who are faced with specific accounts can't wait any longer, and don't want to wait any longer.

In addition, the official gradual liberalization has evolved into a continuous increase in the specific implementation level, which directly wears down people's patience and confidence.

Based on the "real" aspects of these two aspects, some of the appeals of rights protection protests in various places, such as lifting the restricted movement in low-risk areas, canceling the normalization of nucleic acid, canceling the inspection of health treasures, and giving the public a choice of home isolation or centralized isolation once they are positive , to stop building shelters is reasonable and specific, and the final result may also be effective.

For example, many places in Urumqi have returned to normal one after another, many communities in Beijing have been unblocked through rights protection actions, Peking University has promised to suspend the construction of the planned shelter, and Chengdu’s construction of a 10,000-person shelter has also been suspended.

Look at the false side.

During this round of protests, "white paper" has become a very symbolic existence. In colleges and universities such as Nanjing Institute of Media Communication, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Nanjing Forestry University, Sichuan Film and Television Academy, some students held signs or put up slogans or simply Hold up a blank sheet of paper to express demands for a return to normal life or to encourage people to wake up.

What is the meaning of "white paper"? Everyone can have different interpretations. This is also the invisible power of "white paper". Virtuality and nothingness, as well as some demands that are divorced from the epidemic prevention itself, such as "freedom of speech" and "freedom of the press", are complicating and abstracting the situation.

And this seems to have gathered the forces of all parties in a short period of time, but in fact it is also laying down hidden dangers.

Demonstrations in Urumqi, Xinjiang.

(video screenshot)

On this issue, Hong Kong's 2019 amendment turmoil is a mirror.

At first, the demands of the people who took to the streets were "withdrawal of the extradition bill", which was very specific, but as the situation developed, the provocative slogan "anti-extradition" began to take over the mainstream, and the "extradition bill" was specific. Yes, but the homonym of "send to China" is abstract and moral. It is tantamount to telling people that today's Hong Kong people do not stand up against the enemy to express "opposition", which is tantamount to "sending death" to the whole of Hong Kong.

Facts have proved that this slogan has indeed brought millions of people to the streets, but the actual evolution of the entire amendment storm has exceeded many people's expectations. The damage to Hong Kong's core values ​​and the loss of people's confidence may be difficult to overcome. recovery shortly.

Going back to the protests across China this time, we also need to look at them over a longer period of time. The more specific the appeal, the more effective it is, and the more abstract and moral it is, the more likely it will be counterproductive, because it needs to be recognized that whether it is the official or the public, the core goal is The consensus is to restore normal life as soon as possible, with economic construction as the center, so that the development achievements and stable situation formed since the reform and opening up will not be interrupted.

History tells us that the development and evolution of every social movement is often "a car that can't stop drags down a horse" in the end, regardless of people's subjective will.

For the authorities, how to deal with such a tsunami of public opinion seems complicated, but it is actually simple. That is to start from the "real" side, see the difficulties in people's lives, and relieve the people through practical changes in epidemic prevention policies. Emotions, using "virtual" against "virtual", is tantamount to adding fuel to the fire, making the situation even more uncontrollable.

At the end of the 1970s, China, which had just emerged from the quagmire of the Cultural Revolution, launched reform and opening up under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. During the process, there were many ups and downs and twists and turns. However, Deng Xiaoping always emphasized that "two overwhelming "Everything", one is "economic construction", and the other is "social stability". In the end, after more than 40 years of reform and opening up, China has achieved remarkable achievements that have attracted worldwide attention.

The difficulties we are facing today, in the final analysis, we still need to rely on economic construction to solve the problem, and we need to take social stability as the premise. This is the key to the success of reform and opening up, and it is also the history of "unification" and "division" in China for more than 2,000 years told us.

Chairman Rabbit of "Three Generations of Red" commented on the epidemic prevention and control policy: Human beings cannot eradicate the virus, they can only co-exist and protect rights. Protests continue. Fire control of residential buildings in Urumqi: When will the secondary disasters under excessive epidemic prevention stop?